President Dr Arif Alvi has approved the appointment of Justice Umar Ata Bandial as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), several media outlets reported.
According to state-run Radio Pakistan, Justice Bandial will succeed the incumbent Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on February 2, 2022. The change will take place on the principle of seniority in which the puisne judge becomes the chief justice.
Justice Bandial will continue as the chief justice till his retirement on September 18, 2023, and will hold the position for some 19 months. CJP Gulzar Ahmed will retire after working in the top judicial position for more than two years.
Supreme Court judges, including the chief justice, retire once they are 65, while high court justices superannuate on reaching 62 years of age under the constitution.
A brief look at Bandial’s carrier
Born on September 17, 1958 in Lahore, Justice Bandial received his elementary and secondary education in Lahore, Kohat, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.
“He secured his B.A. (Economics) degree from Columbia University, USA followed by a Law Tripos degree from Cambridge University, UK and qualified as Barrister-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn, London,” the Supreme Court website stated.
In his law practice at Lahore, Justice Bandial dealt mostly with commercial, banking, tax, and property matters. From 1993 until his elevation, he also handled international commercial disputes, according to the details on the Supreme Court’s website.
He appeared in arbitration matters before the Supreme Court and also before international arbitral tribunals in London and Paris. Justice Bandial was elevated as an LHC Judge on December 4, 2004.
He had declined oath under PCO [provisional constitutional order of Pervez Musharraf] in November 2007 but was restored as an LHC judge as a result of the lawyers’ movement for the revival of the judiciary and constitutional rule in the country. Later, he served for two years as the LHC chief justice until his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court in June 2014.
During his career as a judge of the LHC and the Supreme Court, he has rendered judgments on a number of important public law and private law issues. These include pronouncements on civil and commercial disputes, constitutional rights, and public interest matters.
Who will be the next CJP after Justice Bandial?
Following Justice Bandial’s superannuation, Justice Qazi Faez Isa will become the chief justice to serve this office for over one year till October 25, 2024.
In between, Justice Maqbool Baqar will retire without becoming the chief justice. Similarly, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan will also superannuate without being the chief justice.
However, after the superannuation of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Ijazul Ahsan will become the chief justice and work in this position for some 10 months till August 4, 2025. Article 175A says the president will appoint the most senior judge of the Supreme Court as the chief justice.
